what’s happening in my house these days

Archive for the 'Fun' Category

I’m not quite done with our holiday recap, despite the fact that things have been hopping around here! We just had an incredible weekend, but I’ll just give some highlights:
- We had a garage sale on Saturday morning. We got rid of a whole bunch of things but managed to keep our marriage. Olé!

- Saturday afternoon, Amy and Peter invited us into the city for dinner with a bunch of friends. In particular, we got to see Pauline, Dave and their boys, who are visiting from Seattle, so that was spectacular. The food was magnificent and the visit even better. What a great night.

- Sunday afternoon we participated in a badminton invitational at Courtney and Russell’s house. The hosts were charming. The competition was fierce. I won’t lie – I have some suspicions that certain participants were using their ridiculously cute children to disarm their opponents. Those dirty tactics aside, it was awesome. We also discovered that Honey has clearly inherited some skills from her badminton-champion grandmother, so she’ll be someone to watch at the San Rafael Open.

Today we got back to business – swim class, laundry, reading, summer. We’re still just going on faith that it’s actually summer here, of course, as we bundle up in our fleece. I’m a little nervous for our east coast visitors this week. They certainly know cold, but boy are they out of practice! I’d better prep the hot water bottles.

But let’s get back to real summer. Here’s what it looks like:

Ahhh.

These are the shirts we made last year for the 2009 Hampton Beach Skee Ball Team.

Yes, we’ve been back from our east coast trip for a week and a half and I’m just getting around to this post. You are probably figuring it’s the staggering number of photos, or perhaps the intimidating stack of stories that’s holding me back, right? Or maybe you know me better and assume I’m just sitting around drinking scotch and watching Mad Men.

As it turns out, you’re… you’re… well you’re partially right on that one. BUT I have a bone to pick with you nonetheless. Last week it seemed like a really grand idea to give Honey’s room an overhaul. I had terrific images of snapping my fingers and getting that room shipshape in no time, but as it turns out, Mary Poppins was magic and I’m not quite so when I snapped I triggered an avalanche. I’ve been buried in that room for days, under piles of drawings and stuffed animals and clothes and Japanese erasers and dress ups and stuffed animals and cleats and playmobil and stuffed animals and bags and books and figurines and mysterious clay objects and did I mention stuffed animals? Days, guys. Did you hear the muffled cries for help? That was me.

I’m totally asking for a Saint Bernard for Christmas.

The good news is that I finally clawed my way back up to the surface. There might even be some photos once the room is completely back in place. In the meantime, here are some beach shots.

Ahhhhh. Really is there anything like the beach? (Thanks to Tom for those middle two images.) We had a spectacular time, and it’s good to be home. I think.

Honey had an excellent intuition yesterday to swing into a consignment shop where our friend Ruth used to volunteer. We strolled in, and in the first 30 seconds we made two important discoveries: our neighbor Barbara, who was working there that day, and a set of sterling silver animal birthday candle holders. Shall I break that down? Birthday candle holders. Shaped like animals.

They were so lovely we bought them up, just like that. And then when our friends came over for dinner, we knew what we had to do.

Our friend Sean said it was a little like choosing your monopoly piece – it was fun seeing which animal each person wanted most.

We’ll be having a barbeque with some great friends, but a corner of my heart will be at the parade in Needham along with my family, watching 3,742 fire trucks wail their way along Webster Street. Wherever you are, I hope you have a terrific day, and I hope you get some pie.

Ok, raise your hand if you like Mythbusters. We’re all fans here – it’s a tasty blend of curiosity and craziness with a dash of scientific method. Plus it’s good to support your local team.

Well, the other night we saw the episode where the myth was if you interleave the pages of two phone books, you can’t pull the phone books apart. If you haven’t seen it, the whole episode is fun and surprising (at least it sure was for me). Turns out I have a new appreciation for phone books. Scratch that – turns out I have an appreciation for phone books.

If you’re the type who likes to read the ending first – this clip on You Tube will show you how it all turned out.

The best part was that we got to the end of the show, there was a pause, and Hot Wheels asked, “What’s a phone book?”

Amazing how some events feel like they’re forever in the planning and anticipation, and then they’re over in a flash.

It was such a fun time – a beautiful day and a whole bunch of great friends. We counted 115, but there might have been a few extras. There was one gorgeous little boy that we all thought came with somebody else and in the end we think he might have just wandered over from the playground. It was such a gift to see all these terrific people we know from different areas of our lives all coming together. It was like a wedding, with bouncy castles.

And cupcakes!

(We had some serious icing and decorating help from our friends across the street.)

Here’s the thing – we’re insanely fortunate to be surrounded by such fun, generous friends and family. It’s ridiculous. Tom was the happiest birthday guy in the world yesterday, and we’re just so grateful to all our friends for making it a real party.

Here’s to all the great dads out there. Thanks for all the stories you tell, the problems you fix, the performances you encourage, the time you make.

This is what you call a soft-focus Father’s Day photo. We were walking through the outdoor mall after we saw a matinee (!) of Toy Story 3 (!!) and there was a guy handing out balloons. As we approached, he looked at Honey and said, “I’m wrapping things up here today – would you like a balloon, or all of them?” It’s like asking a kid if she’d like a puppy. Oddly appropriate, seeing as we’d just walked out of the latest Pixar wonder, to walk around under a huge bunch of balloons. Hand me my cane, Russell, we’re off to South America…

We’ve talked about teacher gifts here in the past. This summer we hit the same dilemma and ended up with the same solution – money into the general gift pool and sampler bags of our favorite types of cookies with thank you notes attached. Thank you notes are not easy, which is what makes them worthwhile. That’s my opinion, anyway.

Here we are, heading off on the last school day of the year.

We love our crossing guard. He’s a professional pianist who travels back to China for competitions every summer.

The last day of kindergarten sure is bittersweet. Does it get better than kindergarten? At our school, the 5th graders have a ‘graduation’ ceremony on the last day. (Let me just quickly get it over with – I’m a curmudgeon about this, I realize, but I just don’t like graduations before high school. There.) Anyway, the school does a lovely job with the whole thing; beautiful slideshow, a brief thoughtful statement about each student, great decorations on the walls with the kids’ pictures. Very nice. This year the 5th graders passed around a microphone and each told one memory of her/his time at the school, with a small takeaway at the end. Some were absolutely hysterical, and one kid told a story about his mother having to drop him off early before school one day when he was in kindergarten.

He said he was the only kid waiting outside the classroom, but his mother had told him people would be coming along soon, so at first he didn’t worry. Then as time passed and he’d been waiting and waiting with no one else showing up, he started to cry. “Then,” he said, “like a knight in shining armor, the lawn mowing guy walked up to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, ‘It’s going to be alright.’” That how this student summed up what he’d learned so far in school – it’s going to be alright.